Dear Foundation Leaders: We Need to Talk…

In the February issue of Fast Company magazine, Nancy Lublin – CEO of Do Something Inc. and the creator of Dress for Success – speaks to the unspeakable words to foundation leaders that so many of us have only fantasized about saying.

Her “open letter to her powerful ‘friends’ at foundations” points out the four major faux pas of foundation leaders. Each of Lublin’s points hits at the weakness of the foundation-NGO relationship and the hurdles that non-profit leaders must overcome to receive the grant funds on which they rely to operate and fulfill their missions.

When I was president of THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy, I outright refused to seek foundation grants. It was – and still is – my firm belief that foundations have as many strings to their funds as do governments or religions. Further, they don’t give you money to do what you want to do; they give you money to do what they want you to do.

Lublin’s open letter is a clarion call that all non-profits leaders believe but cannot say out of fear of losing their so-badly-needed foundation funding, especially in an economy where individuals donors are reducing or cutting their contributions.

The piece is well worth reading — as are all of Lublin’s columns — and can be found here.